This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

It’s hard to imagine a more dynamic debut than the one Bryan Colangelo made in his first summer as the general manager of the Raptors.

And as he prepares to move into another role within the Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment empire, the departure could be because he turned out to be a victim of his own success.

The first team the two-time executive of the year put together won 47 games, the lone division title in franchise history, and set the bar at a height that hasn’t been reached since.

And now, five years removed from the team’s last post-season appearance but with a core together that is in many ways promising, the 47-year-old executive moves to the corporate world.

His basketball legacy?

Article Continued Below

Gambles taken, mistakes corrected, a long and tedious rebuilding process well under way with no guarantees of future success.

Colangelo’s first team was by far his best. After taking over from interim general manager Wayne Embry in February 2006, he remade made a 27-win roster by adding nine new faces to a team that won 47 games and the Atlantic Division title in 2006-07 under NBA coach of the year Sam Mitchell.

But from that point on, there were a flurry of moves that never allowed the team to replicate that season — even a playoff appearance in 2007-08 wasn’t perceived as the same as that original success.

Colangelo was always willing to make bold moves in an effort, originally, to surround then “franchise player” Chris Bosh with a better supporting cast.

He brought in Jason Kapono and a handful of other middling free agents but, aside from two first-round playoff exits in 2007 and 2008, it was a vicious circle of chasing pieces to a puzzle that never quite fit together.

He did not hire a coach with a proven long-term record: Mitchell got a four-year deal but lasted less than two; Jay Triano had no head coaching experience when he was asked to usher in the post-Bosh reconstruction era, and Dwane Casey hadn’t been head coach in almost a decade when he was hired.

Whether any more accomplished or veteran coaches were interested in the Toronto job any time it came open is unknown, as is if anything would have unfolded differently had they been.

The one major misstep, however, was not reading the tea leaves correctly on the Bosh situation, a move that set the franchise on a rebuilding course it remains on today.

By allowing Bosh to leave for nothing — although he was rebuffed by the Los Angeles Clippers in a 2009 trade proposal that could have netted Toronto both a first-round draft pick and guard Baron Davis — Colangelo and the Raptors were forced to build from almost ground zero.

He did as he said he would do, however, not taking huge gambles on aging veterans and building through “organic growth” with draft picks like DeMar DeRozan, Ed Davis, Jonas Valanciunas, Terrence Ross and Quincy Acy.

All are seen as key components of the team today except Davis. Colangelo again kept true to his word and went for the home run when it presented itself, dealing Davis and point guard Jose Calderon for Rudy Gay, by far the boldest trade of his tenure.

Whether a group anchored by Gay, DeRozan and Valanciunas is good enough remains to be seen. But since the departure of Bosh, the Raptors have improved incrementally and only a disastrous 4-19 start to last season kept them out of the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race despite the fact they crept to within four games of a post-season slot with a couple of months left.

History will eventually be the judge of Colangelo’s tenure, and with so much of the current roster tied to his machinations as president and GM, much of that history has yet to unfold.

He has been the architect of different teams with different results. He has won, he has lost, and he leaves a roster yet to find its true place in franchise history.

What do you think?

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com